Sports: Top Stories

Tulowitzki leads Rockies to first win of season, 8-4 over Brewers

Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki celebrates in the dugout after scoring Dexter Fowler in the top of the seventh inning on a sacrafice fly against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday at Miller Park. More photos. ( Mike McGinnis, Getty Images)

Troy E. Renck and Patrick Saunders add analysis and notes to this blog focusing on the Colorado Rockies.

MILWAUKEE — They had better double check Troy Tulowitzki's seat on the charter Wednesday night. He's not going to want to return to Denver, where the ball doesn't carry. At least not the way it does for him in Milwaukee.

The shortstop continued crushing dreams and inflating ERAs at Miller Park on Tuesday night, leading the Rockies to an 8-4 victory, their first under manager Walt Weiss.

Tulowitzki went deep for the second straight game, leaving him with 10 home runs in his career against the Brewers, including five at Miller Park in 18 games. Carlos Gonzalez also homered again for an offense that alternated between paper cuts and uppercuts to wobble a battery of Brewers pitchers.

"It means so much to have Tulo back. He does things every night that opens people's eyes," Gonzalez said. "We know we have a good offense. Now all we want to do is help this team win."

Weiss has seen this kind of performance before as the sound-check shortstop in the rock-star lineup of the mid-1990s. On those teams, however, there was never a player in the middle of the infield like Tulowitzki. He's 6-foot-3, 215 pounds, closer to Larry Walker's size with similar tools, save for speed. Tulo tied the game in the third with a 400-foot-plus home run that landed on the Harley-Davidson patio in center field.

Advertisement

Walker used to do stuff like that all the time. Tulo's most impressive at-bat came in the seventh, and bore a striking resemblance to one by Dante Bichette. Bichette had a knack for shortening up with two strikes when he was hunting RBIs. He would widen his stance and focus on the opposite field. As the team's new hitting instructor, he calls it the bulletproof approach.

"You have to have something comfortable to go back to in those situations," Bichette explained. "It's about executing."

With the game tied at 4-all, Tulo witzki worked the count to 2-2 against Burke Badenhop. The right-hander flipped a 79 mph curveball to the plate. Tulo was fooled, but unlike in past seasons, he resisted the temptation to over swing. He threw his hands at the ball, floating a flyball into center field for a sacrifice fly, plating his 28th RBI against the Brewers in 31 games.

"It's evident the guys are buying into the approach," said Weiss, who was presented a bottle of champagne after the game for his first win. "That was a huge at-bat by Tulo."

The at-bat defined an inning when the Rockies struggled to get the ball out of the infield, but produced three runs. Todd Helton added a single, and suddenly the Rockies were drowning a pitcher just as Weiss and Bichette had discussed.

The offense, typically an eyesore on the road, diverted attention from Jorge De La Rosa's troubling start. The left-hander lasted just 13 outs, exiting after 77 labor-intensive pitches because of his inability to handle Rickie Weeks (5-for-8 lifetime) or Ryan Braun, who is a cringe-worthy 8-for-11 with two homers and nine RBIs off De La Rosa following his third-inning home run that shoved Milwaukee ahead 4-2.

With Braun at the plate in the fifth, Edgmer Escalona was summoned. He retired the slugger and restored order in the bullpen with his five outs.

The pitching didn't have to be special. Not with an offense fueled by players who could not have been more comfortable if they were at Coors Field.

The beauty of baseball is that you never see it coming. It's easy to predict the Rockies will lose on the road. Just because they can't hit, right? That hasn't been the case through the first two games. The offense has pounded out 26 hits, including 14 in an 8-4 victory over the Brewers, Walt Weiss' first as manager of the Rockies.

At the plate. Troy Tulowitzki could not have scripted a better start to his season personally after missing the final four months with a left groin injury. He has homered in back-to-back games for the first time since last May 27-28. Tulowitzki last opened a season with homers in consecutive game in 2009. Carlos Gonzalez has matched Tulo with homers Monday and Tuesday, the first time the two of them have repeated together. It's significant given how much CarGo struggled in the second half last season, a slump he attributed partly to Tulo's absence from the lineup. The Rockies finished with four players with multiple hits, including Todd Helton, who recorded his first hit.

On the mound. Jorge De La Rosa had no answer for Rickie Weeks and Ryan Braun, who have been wrecking balls against him for years. Weeks improved to 5-for-8 off De La Rosa with a single, setting up Braun's first home run. Braun is 8-for-11 against the left-hander with nine RBIs. Edgmer Escalona, who needed a strong spring to make the club, provided steady middle work to keep the bullpen in order. He recorded his first major-league win, a long journey for a reliever who has struggled with his temper, composure and command in the minor leagues.

First-year Rockie Reid Brignac bunts to move Yorvit Torrealba to third base in the eighth inning, but a would-be sacrifice turned into a single Tuesday night. (Mike McGinnis, Getty Images)

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.